‘Dig deep, Kel. Find those battle flares!’ yelled Ade. ‘Or was it all a one night wonder?’
Suddenly afraid that he was going to disgrace himself and not blaze, that it had been just kissing Meri that had triggered the reaction, Kel began fighting for real. He couldn’t stand being mocked, humiliated in front of his friends, and the attacks were suffocating. ‘Get off me!’ With a kick, he pushed Lee away, shook off Swanny and sprang up.
‘Uh-oh, lads, there he goes!’ shouted Ade.
With a great rising roar, the boys all yelled as Kel’s skin marking erupted into a massive flare out, blaze emphasized by the UV light bathing the room.
‘Whoa, dig out the sunglasses! That’s one hell of a skin pattern you’ve got there!’ Ade slapped him on the shoulder. ‘Welcome to the world of the big boys, Kel.’
As his panic ebbed, so did the intensity of the skin-glow. Kel looked down at his arms and torso, intrigued by his first clear sight of what had been hidden so long. The pattern curled and looped its way up his arms and down his chest, coming to a halt at his hips. Tendrils and curves like the patterns on a fossil ammonite. So cool.
He grinned at his friends. ‘Pleased to be here.’
7
Meri waited until she was absolutely sure that Kel had turned for home before she burst into Theo’s bedroom. Her guardian was still awake, sitting up in bed with his usual nightcap of a camomile tea and a good book. The picture of contentment bought a lump to her throat. She was about to put an end to all that.
‘We’ve got to go—I’ve got to go,’ she began, wringing her hands. ‘Right now. Tonight.’
Theo put aside the novel he was reading and threw back the duvet. ‘Whoa: slow down, Meri.’
Spinning on her heel, she rushed out and into her room. She started pulling clothes at random from her chest of drawers, dumping them on the bed. ‘I can’t slow down. I’ve only got a few hours to escape.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Following her and standing in the doorway, Theo ran his hands through his hair, making it stick up in wild tufts.
‘Kel—his friends—everyone in that house is one of them.’
‘One of who?’
‘My enemies. Theo, I haven’t got time for you to be dense. They’re the same kind of people as took my parents from me.’ A suitcase wouldn’t do—too cumbersome. She’d have to take a backpack.
‘I don’t like the way you are talking to me right now, Meri.’ Theo dragged the backpack out of her hands and threw it into the hallway out of reach. ‘Now, just stop. Sit down. Despite what you say, you do have time to tell me what’s going on.’
Meri almost chucked in his face that she was an adult, that she didn’t need to explain, but her more rational half recognized that he deserved the courtesy of an explanation. Like the droid hit by a kick in the midriff, she slumped on the bed. ‘OK, OK. At the cinema I found out that Kel is part of it.’
‘Part of what? Meri, could you be any more mysterious if you tried?’
Her promise to Ade to keep the secret and her resolution at the lawyer’s office came back to her. Theo would be put in danger if she told all. She had to measure out the truth in tiny doses. ‘It’s something to do with the UV vision I have.’
‘They can see like you do? That’s good news, isn’t it?’
‘No, because I’m not exactly like them. Mine is different—more powerful somehow. I see far more than they do.’
Theo was still on completely the wrong track. ‘But they’ll understand you. You won’t be so alone with it.’
‘No, Theo, they’ll hunt me. They are exactly like the people who took out my parents with no mercy. I can’t explain how I know. Just believe me that I’m not making this up.’
‘We’re not talking organized crime, are we, and mafia vendettas?’
She shook her head.
‘So what are we talking about?’
She scrunched up a T-shirt, twisting it in her hands to form a rope. ‘This thing, it’s much older—much deeper. I’m on one side, they’re on the other, and they don’t wish me well.’
‘They threatened you? I find that hard to believe. I’d’ve said that Kel was really fond of you.’
‘He might be at the moment as they don’t know yet but they’ll work it out. I’ll slip up or they’ll have some test I don’t know about.’ Realizing she was ruining the top, she dropped the shirt back on the bed.
‘This is a lot to absorb.’ Theo’s expression was an appeal for her to take it all back, to unsay what she had claimed. Their neat little life was about to be blown out of the water. ‘How can you be so sure?’
‘I saw them chase my parents and me that day. Theo, I saw them.’
Theo held his hands spread, helpless. ‘You were four.’
‘Old enough. It’s not something I’ll ever forget.’
‘So if you’re right, what do you want us to do?’ Theo paced the short distance between the door and her bed. ‘I’m not sure how easy it will be to disappear. The other times I had a chance to prepare, line up the next job.’
Meri swallowed. ‘I guess I’ll have to start out immediately. You can follow when you’re able.’
‘You’re not doing this on your own.’
She thought that would be a problem for him. ‘Just temporarily. We’ll make mistakes if we try to run too quickly. I’ll need a new ID and so on. Can you get me that?’
Theo rubbed his forehead. ‘I don’t know, Meri. I’ll ask around. Saddiq has some relatives that might have connections but I’m not exactly up to speed with the criminal underground. I hoped I’d never have to use it again. Where are you going to go?’
‘Not sure but I’d welcome some ideas.’
‘What about staying with Saddiq—or Valerie?’
‘Kel’s met them. Your friends are the first places they’ll look. I can’t drag them into this.’
He nodded, coming to the same conclusion. ‘Then stay for a couple of nights in a hostel, pay cash, while we think of something better. There are lots of them in the city for eco-volunteers. You’ll blend in with people your own age.’ He paused. ‘Are you absolutely sure you are not over-reacting?’
‘Theo, I’m sure.’
‘God, Meri, what is this madness? From the way you’re talking, I’m afraid for you.’
‘So am I. And for you. Don’t let them put pressure on you, OK? Snow them. You know nothing.’
‘How will you get in touch? If this crew are as dangerous as you claim, we can’t trust usual methods of communications and you can’t come here or to my work.’
‘What about the lawyer’s office? No one else but you and me knows about that.’
‘That’s a good idea.’ Theo started picking up her clothes and helping her pack. ‘Meet you there tomorrow afternoon around three, OK?’
‘Make sure you don’t have anyone following you.’
‘Meri, I’m not newly hatched from the egg.’
‘Sorry. Just…just….’
‘You’re just scared, and stressed, and feeling as if life is spinning out of control.’ He pulled her head to his chest. ‘I get it.’
She let out a sob, finally safe to let it go. ‘I really liked him.’
‘I know, sweetness.’
‘And then…and then he turned out to be just the same as them.’
‘Not knowing exactly what that means, I’ll have to take your word on it. But, Meri, we’ve been running for fourteen years. When are we going to turn and make a stand? Involve the police or seek some kind of official protection?’
‘I don’t think that would work. They’re too wealthy, too well connected, with too much at stake.’
‘Think about it, huh? You can’t keep running for the rest of your life.’
‘Maybe not, but if I stop running then I’m dead, Theo. I mean it.’
Meri decided to leave at five in the morning, planning on catching the first train into the centre of London and lose herself in the commuting crowds. Putting the fina
l things in her bag—a photo of her with her parents, her copy of Jane Eyre and the little sketchbook Theo had given her—she settled the backpack on her shoulders. Theo handed her a print-off of the address of a hostel in Wapping not too far from the lawyer’s office if she decided to walk.
‘Reviews online make it sound OK but don’t leave your bag lying about,’ he said as he zipped up her jacket for her and settled a beanie over her hair, a last paternal gesture before he let her go.
‘What was your phrase about not having just hatched?’
‘But you are sheltered, Meri, whatever you might think. I wanted it that way. This time I can’t be there to stand between you and the crap that’s out there. What do you want me to tell the school?’
‘My exams—all that work and I’m throwing it away?’ She’d only just thought of that. And what would Sadie think when she just didn’t show up? She’d have to get some word to her friend so she didn’t believe Meri had dumped her without a thought.
Theo looked as unhappy at the prospect as Meri. ‘I guess that’s the price you’re going to have to pay. But, love, your life is worth far more than a few exams.’
She squeezed those regrets into a corner of her heart and slammed a door on them. ‘Tell school I’ve moved to be with other relatives.’
‘OK, that’ll fly. Makes it sound like once past eighteen you couldn’t wait to get shot of me.’
‘You know that’s not true.’ She went up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. ‘Will you check there’s no one watching?’
He rolled his eyes but did as she asked, peeking through the living room curtains. His stance stiffened. ‘Actually, Meri, I think there might be. I was hoping it was going to be mainly in your imagination.’
She joined him. A car was parked just down the street, windows slightly fogged indicating there were people inside. She didn’t think it was a couple making out: it was too public. There were many better side roads on the edge of the Common. ‘Neither of us are imagining that. I’ll go the back way, climb over the wall onto Parkside Avenue.’
‘Do you want me to report them to the police? I could claim I suspect they’re burglars waiting to break in. That should keep them busy. I’ll do it anonymously.’
‘I like the way you think.’
Meri waited for the patrol car to pull up alongside the surveillance team before she headed out through the garden they shared with Mr Kingsley downstairs. Using an old stone birdbath to give herself a boost, she threw the bag over the wall, then followed, taking care not to cut herself on the broken bottles cemented along the top under the covering of ivy. She felt better now she had taken the necessary evasive action, her churning emotions smoothing out to a determination to get out from under this snarl of troubles. If only Kel hadn’t turned out to be one of the enemy; if only she hadn’t ever tried to venture out from her self-imposed island of no-friends.…
Suck it up, Meri. There was no point in regrets. He wasn’t who she thought so the quicker she put that relationship behind her the better. She had to let go of the silly dream that she could be the special one for him. Lesson learned.
Kel looked for Meri on the bus the next day and was disappointed when she was a no show. At first he didn’t think anything of it—she’d need time to get over the shock so a day off school wasn’t unreasonable—but then the art teacher didn’t call her name when she took the afternoon register.
‘What about Meri?’ he asked Mrs Hardcastle as she sent the data off to the office.
‘Who, Kel?’
‘Meredith Marlowe?’
‘Oh, yes, the pointillist. There was a note in the register. Apparently she’s switched schools suddenly—family crisis.’
‘To where?’
‘It didn’t say. If you’re a friend, I’m sure she’ll get in touch.’
Kel went back to his potter’s wheel, using the circling motion and hands pressed lightly on cool clay to calm his thoughts. Swanny had reported at breakfast that Tiber and Jiang had got moved along so they had had to stop their surveillance of her flat. Had Meri taken the opportunity to bolt? That seemed an extreme reaction and far too quick. She’d not even given what Ade had told her a chance to sink in.
He’d have to report her.
He muttered a curse.
Seeing the comp-punk friend of Meri’s frowning at a wire sculpture over on the far side of the room, Kel turned off the wheel and wiped his hands. Sauntering over, he came to perch on the bench beside her.
‘Hey, Sadie.’
‘Hey, yourself, Kel.’
‘Looks good. Abstract?’
‘Ah no: that’s where you’re wrong—and exactly what I want you to think.’ She tied her hair back with an off-cut of flexible wire, bundling the long black mop up in a messy bun. The action revealed a row of little jewellery guys climbing along the outer rim of her right ear. ‘It’s a scaled-up model of the inside of the quantum chip.’
‘Very scaled up then. Clever. So, er, did you hear what Miss Hardcastle said about Meri?’
‘Yeah, I got a text from her. Seems she and Theo had a serious bust up and she’s moved to other relatives. They’ve been wanting her to come for ages so it just brought that forward. It’s a bummer changing schools in her last year but she’d made up her mind.’
And that was a total lie. Meri hadn’t argued with Theo and had no relatives. ‘Where’s she gone?’
‘She said she’d let me know the address as soon as the dust settled. For the moment she said to text.’
‘I’ll do that then.’
Twisting a piece of wire around her index finger, Sadie looked away, a little awkward. ‘I don’t mean to be rude, Kel, but she might want to cut you loose, you know? She told me on Saturday that the first date was a data-dump.’
Humiliation crawled hot under his collar. What if Sadie was right? ‘We went out again last night so it can’t’ve been that bad.’
‘But she didn’t say she was moving? That doesn’t sound to me like a girl wanting to keep seeing you. Maybe she is just too nice to tell you?’
He couldn’t get into that now, not with someone who had no idea of what really was at play here. ‘Just say I’m worried about her if you talk. Say I want her to get in touch urgently.’
‘Sure—as long as you understand I’m her friend first.’
‘I’ve no problem with that—she needs her friends.’
Leaving Art to join the crowds mingling in the hallways on lesson change, Kel decided to put off mentioning anything to Ade until he got home, hoping that the delay would give Meri time to calm down, come back and reply to his messages. He kept circling what he had said the night before, what he could’ve done differently to give her a softer landing.
Doubts edged in like rain-bearing clouds at a cricket match. Granted that the markings were unusual, it didn’t add up that she had gone off like a rocket into panicked outer space. He would have imagined most people would be intrigued, even want a closer look, once the initial shock had passed. The markings were beautiful, something to be proud of and displayed when visible. That had been their original function: a mating and battle signal like a peacock’s tail, a little bit embarrassing to admit now but surely no different in essence from cultivating sexy long hair or designer stubble?
But had she stopped to think about any of that. No. Meri had totally freaked, lashing out at all of them. It hadn’t been helped that Lee had been hostile. Mr Pissy Cat, as Meri had aptly named him.
Kel’s steps slowed, thought of making it to his next lesson fading. But when had she been close enough to see Lee’s jaguar markings? Not at the gig despite what Ade assumed. In that bundle in the mosh pit all she could’ve seen up in the balcony was the glow, not the definition. He was sure he hadn’t mentioned any specifics either. And if she didn’t see it clearly then, when else would she have had the chance? Lee had been running cold rather than hot last night, not blazing out, or they all would’ve seen.
Oh hell, no.
That was impossible.<
br />
Kel stopped in his tracks in the middle of the chemistry corridor, not caring when a younger student bumped into him. The girl muttered an apology even though it had been his fault. Ignoring her, Kel turned on his heels and headed out of the school building. The chances must be so slight as to be microscopic. He had to check but could only do that at home in the library.
Swanny met Kel at the door, surprised to see him back before end of school and without Ade. ‘Everything OK, Kel? Not ill again?’
‘No.’ Kel bowled straight past and into the library that opened off the foyer.
‘Who’s looking after Ade?’
‘Lee I expect. If not, Ade’ll have to cope. He’s a big boy. I’ve got something more important to check first.’
‘That's not the deal, and you know it.’
‘Get out of my face, Swanny.’ Kel slammed the door, knowing he was probably in for a reprimand for insubordination but right now he could only think of one thing. He grabbed the first volume of the archive history of his people off the shelf and turned to the index. Atlanteans: distinguishing marks, p. 82.
Flipping to the entry he had read so often but never thought he would have to take seriously, he checked his facts.
At the lawyers’ office in the city, Meri sat in the same room to read her message, exactly as she had as on her first visit. The same noises played outside: the murmur of voices and tapping of keys. The only thing that was different was her. She was the one who had gone through a life-changing experience, ousting her from her safe nest to have to fly free well before she was ready.
Shaking off her paralysis, she put the little key into the lock. According to Mr Rivers, she had timed her visit perfectly, the box having arrived from New York that morning with a special courier. Theo had arranged for her to read its contents with her own cup of coffee while he tried his Cockney chappie act again with Sultry Sophia. Sniffing the drink, Meri hoped the real caffeine would punch through her sleepiness. When she’d booked her bed at the hostel in Wapping, she’d been tempted to fall facedown on the mattress but knew Theo would go out of his mind with worry if she didn’t make her afternoon appointment. She took a sip. Ugh: was that what real coffee tasted like? Heavily diluting it with milk, she tried again. Better, but to be honest it wasn’t her drink, not like it was for Theo. Another gulp and she could feel her heart beginning to react. Should this stuff be legal?
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